A review by riverwise
Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson

3.0

Kim Stanley Robinson has stealthily become one of our leading SF writers over the past few decades, and this latest book explores the idea of a moon colonised by the Chinese. There's lots of interesting stuff here, like economic warfare between the US and China, an emerging alternative currency, lunar espionage, power struggles within the Chinese political elite and a popular uprising. Most of it happens in the background of this book though, as KSR keeps tightly focused on a few core characters (one of whom is definitely a descendant of Freds Fredericks from Escape From Kathmandu in my personal headcanon). It's solid stuff and an enjoyable read but it does feel like minor Robinson, a break between more substantial projects. Look at that list of stuff in my second sentence and you could easily imagine Neal Stephenson churning out a thousand pages on the same ideas, whereas KSR is happy to leave it underdeveloped in the background.
Ian MacDonald's Luna series is shaping up to be the definitive moon colonization story of our times, and this isn't in that league. Which isn't to say it's rubbish, just a bit...slight.